Lands & Lore is a fantastic and fun-filled fantasy game where civilizations rise high, but tensions rise even higher. Perhaps you’ll be swept into a portal by your encounters with a rival faction? No matter what land compels you, no matter what lore drives you, you’ll find both your strengths and weaknesses reflected in the cards each round, and these cards will be your resources as you work to conquer fantastic landscapes in an expanding universe. Should you place an army to make your siege stable, or try to win on legend and lore alone? Three ways to win: Capturing the requisite portals, eliminating rival armies or uniting connected regions! A clever combination of luck and strategy makes for dramatic and legendary moments in this one-of-a-kind game!
I have been to two Magic: The Gathering Pro Tours, many grand prix and few hundred other small and large magic tournaments, playing since 1993 and have been a video game developer for the last 10 years. My fiance is a creative who has fond memories of playing D&D and raising 3 gamer kids. This is our passion project. We want this to be a game where people can do things unimaginable in normal games, creating epic and legendary moments in game play at your local card shop or Saturday night gaming session.
We both enjoy many other board games, including anything with Game of Thrones branding. We are heavily influenced by Eight Minute Empire, Fairytale, and many other indie games. Puerto Rico is one of our faves.
The first game, Lands and Lore’s Athaneos, looked complicated at first glance, but after having learned the overall format – somewhat like Risk meets Magic the Gathering – we got to understanding the general principles of gameplay. There are four factions, all seeking to dominate four portals, which, if I remember correctly, are governed by some sort of portal senate, from which cards can be drawn.
Now we only got through one round of the phases, but, what I found intriguing about this game, as well as the game that followed, was the existence of a large player card. In this game, the card held territories, among other cards. Another notable element was the possibility of all players taking their actions at once, so as to decrease the downtime so common with phase-turn games. I liked the idea, but I could see how it could get a bit chaotic. That being said, this point was still in development, so we’ll see where it ends up.
What struck us the most about this game, when thinking of it in relation to Reel Me In!, was the fact that its production level was beyond ours by quite a bit, but that some fairly crucial game play rules were still in transition or not fully decided upon yet. It was almost as if they were taking an opposite approach to ours: production first, mechanics second (or, at least finalized mechanics). Albeit, our game is less complex, but it was fascinating nonetheless.
Overall, Atheneos has a tremendous amount of potential, so keep your eye on this one. I think serious gamers, willing to accept a steep learning curve, will love this one. The art is splendid and inviting; the dice-army usage is refreshing; and the concept is lofty, but once finalized, I’m sure it will wow people.
Contact Information:
Website: www.kickstarter.com
